July 2009
Historic New England – Block Island to New Hampshire.
After we left Mystic we had a disappointing night at Block Island, wind howling, overcrowded anchorage and no desire to jump into the foaming water with dink and go ashore. Thought it might settle down for an evening stroll but that didn’t happen, and in the AM we were fogged in – so adios for now Block Island – maybe next time. We turned on the radar and made our way out of there and towards another, hopefully, more hospitable anchorage.
As the fog and our spirits lifted, we set our course for Woods Hole, if we could find a place to tie up or drop the hook in town. We knew that it was iffy, but we called the Woods Hole Marina and with luck, Ade spoke to Buzz, the owner, who somehow asked where we were coming from…Ade said, “Alaska” and he said c’mon in we’ll find a spot! And he did. We waited for the impossibly small Eel Pond Drawbridge to open and gasped with delight at the tidy little pond we found inside, and marveled that we somehow fit into the odd shaped slip behind Shuckers. Woods Hole is really a scientific community, but also a delightful little town with much to do.
Once on land, we learned that the Woods Hole Film Festival was underway – serendipity. We set out to discover this hamlet, walking the little meandering streets, and visiting the historic and marine museums. We had a lovely dinner at the waterfront Pfusion Restaurant- enjoyed a delicious ginger salmon and a yummy Cioppino (a fish stew we favor) with kefir lime sake sauce. We walked across the street to the firehouse for one of the Film Festival movies. We saw “American Casino”, a disturbing film about the recent meltdown of our economy, the filmmakers sat next to us and it seemed they were seeing it again for the first time. Scary, and a little one sided – all the blame was placed on the businesses and conservatives with nary a glance at Congress. A few audience members pointed that out to them, but they were steadfast in their point of view. No matter where we place blame, and we believe there is much to be shared, it was a sobering film with many good points, and nicely made. We did this all in about 20 hours and hated to leave – with time, I might have been able to decipher the information at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute…maybe!
We left early, it was clear and the tide was in our favor for transiting the Cape Cod Canal, which we did in record time. We toyed with the idea of heading to Hyannis port, but had been warned off visiting it or Martha’s Vineyard at this time of year – the crowds apparently make it rather undesirable. We’ve been there by land, albeit, many years ago. So historic Plymouth was our destination. We picked up a Plymouth Yacht Club mooring with a view of the Mayflower – in fact, we were just behind her. The weather was threatening, so rather than take the dink ashore, we hailed the YC tender and hitched a ride into town. Its lovely club, very hospitable and of course well located. We hiked around town, saw once again all the must see historic monuments, and of course, the ROCK, which is quite tiny now, so many people having chipped a piece off for themselves. It is now housed in a cage and is about the size of a chair…ah well, like pieces of the cross eh?
We decided to stay two days, explored a bit more, but mostly enjoyed being on the mooring and watching the tour boats come and go. One little tour boat does a pirate attack every hour - A “pirate” ship is hidden amongst the moored boats and as the sightseeing boat goes by, often laden with children, the pirates “attack” with water guns to the delight of the kids. Its fun to watch…over and over…and over. But who cannot be charmed by laughing, surprised kids? Not me…gets me every time. We did go ashore for dinner at “14 Union” a dinner house located at the Brewer Marina. It was excellent, and we had a table overlooking…our boat!
Weather looking okay, we decide to press on to Boston. A few quick calls secured an early arrival for our reservations at the Constitution Marina on the Charlestown side of the harbor. We’d tried to get an in town marina, but once we had a chance to look around, realized that Ade picked a winner. It is by the USS Constitution, and on the familiar red lined Freedom Trail, that insured that we could always find our way home. A busy marina with mostly locals, but a few cruisers sandwiched in here and there. Summer is short in Boston, so most of the boats had the owners puttering about, going out onto the bay for sunset, or weekends away. It was a lively place with lovely people, and great staff.
Boston is so good, it’s beyond our expectations. We love it. The thing that amazed me was that it is not that big. It’s a little big city. Everyone walks, and for those bits that are too long, the subway is handy. Little Italy is just across the bridge from us and that neighborhood is fantastic…incredible restaurants and clubs and shops, not unlike the Gaslamp in old San Diego. This is our kind of place. It was hard to decide which delicious smelling restaurant we would try first.
Ade and I actually did our own thing here – he biked dozens of miles each morning, while I was out on walking all over town. He of course saw more, I never ventured up towards Harvard or Boston College– but I sure felt like I could find my way around downtown. I also took a day to visit the Museum of Fine Arts, when Ade toured the USS Constitution and the battleship. We stopped by “our local pub” the historic (and oldest in Boston) Warren Pub a few times, had an evening with the daughter of friends from BB, and had fantastic nights out in little Italy with the teeming sidewalks and cafes.
Heather arrived at Boston Airport and we took the subway to meet her. Ted stopped in Chicago to visit his folks and will join us in a few days. We dragged her around as well, but it turns out, she knows this town better than we do. I forgot they were here last year for a conference. We tried dock master Howard’s favorite place. Massimino’s – we had to wait, but it was worth it. Could stay here for weeks and take it all in.
It’s off the explore a bit more of New England, first was Salem, and impossible as it seems, it was too witchy for me – which is weird because I am so open to alternative thought, but these seem pretty much geared to tourists, more like a carnival atmosphere from what I could see. Felt no energy walking by any of them and I’m rather sensitive to that. I would skip it the next time, even thought the town and people are nice and it has a good Farmers Market and marinas too. Just not my thing.
Next up was Gloucester –the real deal, no artifice. It is a real waterman /fisherman /lobsterman town, despite being the locale made famous by the movie “A Perfect Storm”. We took a mooring, dropped the dink to explore every cove and exotic looking ship, before heading out to see “town”. It is not touristy at all, when we stopped into the bar featured in the movie, it was clear that they were not there to entertain us – it’s a fisherman’s bar with no frills, much like the ones we found in Alaska. We ordered our beers, looked at the pictures on the wall, and then took our lookie-loo preppy selves out of there.
Anxious to show Heather as much as possible, we moved the next day to darling Newburyport. We are so lucky, we were able to tie right up to town dock for a pittance and found ourselves once again the center of attraction. This is a fantastic town, touristy for sure, but a delight – good walks, facilities, fun shops – nice people, good restaurants. We all liked it and will put it on our “be-back” list. It is not often visited by cruising yachts probably due to the shallow bar one has to cross to enter the harbor…careful planning, high tide, and calls to the local harbor master can insure a safe passage in and out.
Ted is due to arrive by bus from Boston, and Portsmouth NH is the closest port to the terminal. We considered docking downtown, but were unable to get a good feel about it from the guides, so we chose the pricey Wentworth by the Sea marina and resort, knowing that we could get in and out in a timely fashion and that they had a courtesy car. We were able to re-provision at a wonderful market, and then pick up Ted. The marina is further out than we like, we so enjoy being right downtown in most ports. But, after checking out the downtown option, realized that again, we’d been guided by the Gods to a better spot.
We wanted to like Portsmouth in lovely New Hampshire, but after the charm of Boston, Gloucester and Newburyport – it was redundant at best. We had a lovely dinner aboard, Ted filling us in on his family and the new Fitness business and then off to sleep because tomorrow we are going to be in MAINE – the elusive destination we set our sights on years ago. Alaska to Maine, or bust! Looks like we made it!
